GM Focuses on Safety in Driverless Vehicle Announcement
Driverless cars came to the forefront of transportation discussions this weekend when General Motors CEO Mary Barra announced her company's plan to add "hands-free and feet-free" driving capabilities to some 2017 models.
Stealth Wind Turbines Avoid Radar Interference in France
France is building the world's first wind farm with turbine blades designed to minimize interference with radar systems, using technology partially inspired by stealth warplanes. EDF Energies Nouvelles, the renewables unit of state-controlled utility EDF, aims to install the new Vestas-built turbines next spring in the "Ensemble Eolien Catalan" wind farm near Perpignan and start operating them over the course of 2015.
Is Germany's Green Zeal Turning Brown?
For all Angela Merkel's headline-grabbing "green revolution", Germany's image as a world leader on environmental policies is in danger of falling under the shadow of the smoke stack and a cloud of exhaust fumes. Increasing dependence on brown coal has raised doubts about whether Berlin will hit its medium-term CO2 emission goals.
Advanced Biofuels Power Up Amid Resistance
The first of three big commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plants comes online in Iowa in a bid to prove the fuel's promise as a solution to climate change
Bacteria Used to Create Fossil Fuel Alternative
British and Finnish scientists have found a way of generating renewable propane using a bacterium widely found in the human intestine and say the finding is a step to commercial production of a fuel that could one day be an alternative to fossil fuel reserves.
Oil and Gas Drilling Raise Electricity Prices in West Texas
In July 2012, Frontier Texas, an Old West museum located in Abilene, received an electric bill nearly $4,000 higher than expected. Oddly enough, the museum hadn't used an unusual amount of power that month.
3 Ways to Keep Bats Away from Wind Turbines
Ultrasonic “boom boxes” and other deterrents are under development
Cheaper Solar Cells with a New Salt
Cadmium chloride is dangerous—and expensive
Most Americans Mistakenly Think U.S. Gets Most of Its Oil from the Middle East
..the United States. Have you heard? Computer scientist and data whiz Randy Olson dove into the UT Energy Poll data and noticed that the American public is pretty confused about where we get out energy.
Satirists As a Source of Science News
How many times have you read a science-themed article from The Onion or watched a science-themed segment on The Daily Show (TDS) or The Colbert Report (CR) and remarked at how “spot on” they are?
China to offer tax breaks on electric cars, limited mostly to local brands
China announced on Friday additional policy support for electric car purchases, offering tax breaks predominantly for cars made by Chinese automakers. The list of tax breaks, posted on the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, also included a model produced by the joint venture between Nissan Motor Co Ltd and Dongfeng Motor Group Co Ltd.
Solar Farms Threaten Birds
Certain avian species seem to crash into large solar power arrays or get burned by the concentrated rays